Immigrants have growing role in Va. politics

Fairfax County
By Kali Schumitz
Source: Fairfax County Times
TUESDAY, JUNE 23 2009
UPDATED TUESDAY, JUNE 23 2009

Candidates campaigning in Virginia would be well advised to pay attention to the growing Asian and Latino communities here, according to recent analyses of the immigrant vote.

New Americans – naturalized citizens and the U.S.-born children of immigrants – now make up about 6.4 percent of the total voting population in Virginia, according to research by the Immigration Policy Center that was published last week.

That figure is even higher in Northern Virginia: about 12.5 to 18.5 percent of the voting-age population in the 8th, 10th and 11th Congressional Districts comprises naturalized citizens, according to the study, which was based on Census data.

“It’s not a marginalized community; it’s not something you can ignore,â€